Du Yun News

Now that the Metropolitan Opera has had a major success with its At-Home Gala, there are other opera companies with similar ideas. The Florence May Festival, (Maggio Musicale Fiorentino), will offer its presentation on Friday, May 1, 2020, at noon. P.D.T. Since many opera lovers are working from home, the audience should be enormous. 

During its unplanned hiatus from public performances, LA Opera has created an extensive array of online programming under the banner LAO at Home. Here's what's on tap for next week.

Angel's Bone, the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera by composer Du Yun and librettist Royce Vavrek that was to have been a highlight of LA Opera's Off Grand programming for the spring of 2020, will instead be made available for online streaming on May 1.

Music Director Osmo Vänskä and the Grammy Award-winning Minnesota Orchestra today announced plans for the ensemble's 2020-21 season.

To protect its audiences, musicians, employees, and community from the spread of COVID-19 and in response to the evolving guidance from Governor Gavin Newsom, Mayor Eric Garcetti, and Los Angeles County health officials, the LA Phil is canceling the remainder of its concerts for the 2019/2020 season at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Americas Society presents a new series of online cultural programs to offer original musical and artistic content. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Americas Society turned to the virtual world to keep creating awareness of Latin American contemporary artists and music, providing support to that community and engaging audiences beyond the geographic limits of New York City. 

In accordance with a?oeSafer at Homea?? orders by Governor Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles County,a??and Mayor Eric Garcetti as well as recommendations from the Centers for Disease Controla??to limit the spread of COVID-19, the following Walt Disney Concert Hall events have been canceled: 

This spring, Carnegie Hall's season-long Beethoven celebration continues with a vibrant series of events featuring the complete Beethoven symphony cycle with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra, the complete piano sonatas by nine leading artists, and the complete string quartets by Quatuor Ebène, as well as workshops, lectures, and more. Beyond Carnegie Hall, public programming and events, including music, dance, exhibitions, and lectures at prestigious partner organizations across New York City highlight the many dimensions of the great music master. Together, the Beethoven celebration features more than 70 programs, creating an extraordinary view of this revolutionary composer.

The Colorado Music Festival (CMF) in Boulder, Colorado, isn't broadly known outside the state, but it should be. This summer, under the leadership of the recently arrived Music Director Peter Oundjian, the Festival will actually present more 21st-century pieces (16, including two world premieres) than works by Beethoven (13). That reflects Oundjian's commitment to presenting the work of living composers as well as music by masters of the canon. This is the first year of the Festival's five-year commitment to commissioning new works and presenting them in Boulder.

UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) will present Jennifer Koh & Davóne Tines' Everything That Rises Must Converge on Friday, Apr 17, 2020 at 8 p.m. at Royce Hall. Tickets starting at $28 are available now at cap.ucla.edu, 310-825-2101 and the Royce Hall box office.

The Industry is presenting its site-specific world premiere of SWEET LAND at the LA State Historic Park near downtown Los Angeles, with the city's skyline seen prominently during the outdoor production. With Music by Du Yun and Raven Chacon, Libretto by Douglas Kearney and Aja Couchois Duncan, the production directed by Cannupa Hanska Luger and Yuval Sharon, unravels narratives surrounding American identity on the site when a new Arrivals ship runs aground on the shore and they encounter a community of The Hosts, those natives to the land. The story is an important one to be told about the history of invaders who have taken over land where indigenous people live, even in our own backyard, and destroyed not only the land but the people who loved it.

This winter, Trinity Church Wall Street's  program of ambitious musical offerings in lower Manhattan sees the return of the audience favorite Bach + One concert series, which will crown its season in the spring with a performance of three of Bach's cantatas at the Leipzig Bach Festival. Director of Music Julian Wachner has also just been announced as one of three finalists to become the next Artistic Director of the storied Oregon Bach Festival. On the heels of last August's release of Ellen Reid's Pulitzer Prize-winning opera p r i s m on the Decca Gold label, with Wachner leading The Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Trinity's in-house contemporary orchestra, NOVUS NY, the same forces reunite for the Washington D.C. premiere of the opera in the Kennedy Center's DIRECT CURRENT festival.

National Sawdust, the Williamsburg music incubator and non-profit performing arts space, with support from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, has announced the winners of its third annual Hildegard Competition for emerging female, trans, and nonbinary composers: Flannery Cunningham of the USA, Jimena Maldonado of Mexico, and Sonja Mutić of Serbia.

The New York Philharmonic has announced plans for the 2020–21 season, Jaap van Zweden's third as Music Director. Van Zweden once again conducts a wide range of repertoire, including four World Premieres, a US Premiere, and symphonic cornerstones. As in his first two seasons as Music Director, he continues to connect with New Yorkers through impactful projects, performances, and collaborations with other cultural institutions, and conducts the Orchestra on an Asian tour.

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) is pleased to announce programming for the 2020 Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Family SOLUNA International Music & Arts Festival. Opening on April 3 and running through April 21, 2020, the festival will take place at venues in the Dallas Arts District and throughout the city. Tickets for all SOLUNA events go on sale January 30, 2020, at mydso.com/SOLUNA.

LA Opera President and CEO Christopher Koelsch today announced the company's 35th season, which will include six mainstage productions a?" one of them a company premiere and five productions new to Los Angeles a?" and two concerts presented at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, with additional performances presented in other venues through the company's Off Grand and Connects initiatives.

The Dramatists Guild Opera Committee's Librettist Initiative premieres the short film a?oeCredit the Librettist: Conversations with Today's Opera Makersa?? at Opera America's New Works Forum on Thursday, January 16 at 10am at the National Opera Center, 330 7th Avenue, 7th Floor, New York.

In the dead of winter, 92Y's February concert programs promise intimacy and warmth, along with some new sounds: world premieres by John Zorn, Natacha Diels, and Marcos Balter form the basis of cellist Jay Campbell's program with pianist Conor Hanick (February 14). Alexi Kenney's solo violin recital includes scores by Du Yun, Kaija Saariaho, Reich, Kurtág, Enescu, and others, interspersed with movements of Bach (February 7).

Opera America will feature a public discussion with The Dramatists Guild's Opera Committee's Librettist Initiative at their New Works Forum on Thursday, January 16 at 10am at the National Opera Center, 330 7th Avenue, 7th Floor, New York.

Beth Morrison Projects (BMP) and Trinity Church Wall Street (Trinity), together with PROTOTYPE: Opera|Theatre|Now, are pleased to announce a multiyear partnership in which BMP and Trinity will commission and produce five cutting-edge new opera-theater works for premiere at the PROTOTYPE Festival over three seasons (2021a?"2023). These comprise a new work by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer-director team Du Yun and Michael McQuilken; two new works by librettist Royce Vavrek, paired with Mary Kouyoumdjian and Julian Wachner, respectively; a work by composer Ted Hearne with text by Halim Flowers and rap from Momolu Stewart; and a work by Paola Prestini with poet Brenda Shaughnessy.